Slayden, Mississippi

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Slayden, Mississippi
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Slayden
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Slayden
Coordinates: 34°56′49″N89°26′27″W / 34.94694°N 89.44083°W / 34.94694; -89.44083
Country United States
State Mississippi
County Marshall
Elevation
571 ft (174 m)
Time zone UTC-6 (Central (CST))
  Summer (DST) UTC-5 (CDT)
GNIS feature ID677877 [1]

Slayden is an unincorporated community in Marshall County, Mississippi, United States. [1] It is located along U.S. Route 72 in northeast Marshall County, about 35 miles from Memphis, Tennessee.

Contents

History

The community was settled in the 1860's and was originally known as "Gourd Neck", then "Slayden's Crossing". A post office operated in Slayden from 1875 to 1909. Slayden was named for Everett Daniel Slayden. The population in 1900 was 26. [2]

In 1935, Ab Young, a black tenant farmer, was lynched in Slayden by a group of 50 white men. Young had allegedly murdered a white man. [3] Although members of the mob had provided their names and addresses to two reporters from the Memphis Press-Scimitar, [3] the authorities took no action because they claimed they had no clues to the identify of the killers. [4]

See also

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References

  1. 1 2 "Slayden". Geographic Names Information System . United States Geological Survey, United States Department of the Interior.
  2. Rowland, Dunbar (1907). Mississippi: Comprising Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions, and Persons, Arranged in Cyclopedic Form (PDF). Vol. 2. Southern Historical Publishing Association. p. 693.
  3. 1 2 "Newspapermen take big risk to see lynching". Winnipeg Tribune . April 9, 1935. p. 5. Retrieved May 1, 2020.
  4. "Lynchers Unknown". Anniston Star . Anniston, Alabama. March 13, 1935. p. 1. Retrieved May 1, 2020. Authorities can take no action against the lynchers of Ab Young, negro, because they have no clues whatsoever to the identity of 50 white persons who hanged him to a roadside tree